Like many people, my social media feeds are sometimes filled with blatantly false information shared by an older generation who is not media or technology literate. Not only do they believe this information themselves, when they share with other users, it gives the content credibility and keeps the fake story going. With the upcoming presidential election, things will only get worse and tensions will only run higher. How do we tactfully encourage these people in our lives to verify information and not to haphazardly spread falsehoods around social media like candy at a Halloween parade?
Depending on how well I know someone, my first step is usually just to point out the source. I try to discourage people from sharing articles from less than reputable sources. Of course, many are conditioned to believe that “big media” is evil and the smaller, unverified sites are more reputable. This is a hard one to overcome. In this case I try to convince them to back up their information. Find another source. Do some more research. Oftentimes just asking them to do some more research before sharing will help them to cool down, particularly if what they are sharing is inflammatory. When they start to research and find sources that contradict what they are sharing, in my experience it goes one of two ways. Either they change their mind or at least opt not to share or they believe that there is a cover-up, Google must be hiding the correct information, Facebook has been paid off by the government, or something along those lines. It can be very frustrating.
Sometimes I find that if I cannot convince someone that information is false, I need to go about it another way. I need to convince them that they don’t need to share it. In this situation, I can work more with them about why the information is false later, but if I can prevent them from sharing at least there is less damage done. To do this, I like to ask them who they think will benefit from hearing this news? Who is their target audience when they are sharing it? Will it make someone’s life better, more enriched? Will it affect any real change? Depending on how well I know them, I can ask them if they’d be embarrassed if they shared it and later found out it was false. Wouldn’t sharing a funny picture be a better use of your time? I find that if I can keep them from sharing, many times they mull over the issue and find that they were in the wrong.
